Prevenge

Alice Lowe,
United Kingdom 2016,
88 min

“You have no control over your mind and body anymore”, a midwife says as she gently taps Ruth’s heavily pregnant belly. “This one does.” In moody Ruth’s case, this is literally true. Her unborn baby talks to her. She wants Ruth to cut as many people’s throats as possible, starting with annoying, clumsy, egocentric men.

British actress and screenwriter Alice Lowe is known for the grim comedy Sightseers (IFFR 2013), directed by Ben Wheatley. Her directorial debut Prevenge – which premiered at the Venice film festival – is just as full of black humour. Lowe came up with the story while she was pregnant, playing the lead role. The result is a unique vision of the horrors of pregnancy (“a hostile takeover”, according to Ruth) and visits to the midwife. She takes sardonic pleasure in wiping the floor with rose-tinted myths and breathes new life into the term ‘raging hormones’.